Christmas: Cinnamon Rolls and a trip to San Diego

When I was growing up, and when my mom cooked more, she would always make cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. I don’t know how long it was a tradition, but it was enough to cement in my mind that cinnamon rolls are synonymous with Christmas morning. As the years went on, the labor of making yeasted dough the morning of didn’t seem worth it, so we moved on to Pillsbury, then to store-bought, then I started cooking. It took me a while to find the recipe that was just right for Christmas morning, but finally did so in a Williams-Sonoma recipe that has the rolls do their second proof overnight, allowing you to create them the night before and simply pop in the oven the morning of – what a delight.

This year we took a family vacation to San Diego for the holidays and got to stop to see some extended family on the way down, which was great. We toured around during the day; read, watched movies, and played games by night; we fashioned a Christmas tree out of a fake plant on a tall stand in the apartment living room; and I made cinnamon rolls (by hand) on Christmas Eve to ensure we’d have as much of home with us as possible on Christmas morning. I wasn’t quite the champion sister I was on Thanksgiving, as this is most definitely not a gluten/dairy free dish, but it is oh so tasty. The flaky dough is rolled with a layer of sugar, cinnamon, pecans and butter in between, coming out ooie, gooey, and very very tasty. I typically frost these with a standard powdered sugar frosting, but could apparently only remember so much for the trip out of town. Nonetheless, these were just as good and easy as ever, and so long as I can help it, will continue to be a King family tradition.